Chicago Heights man charged in 2011 Lynwood slaying

A second man has been charged with killing a south suburban man and sexually brutalizing a relative of the victim before dousing her with lighter fluid and setting her on fire.

Leonard Small, 22, is charged with murder and a raft of other violent felony charges in the alleged crime spree in November that killed Eugene White Jr., 56, of Lynwood. Another defendant – Calvin Griffin, 23, of Gary – was arrested in February.

Small was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the murder, state records show.

Small, of Chicago Heights, was arrested Saturday, and Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered him held without bond Sunday. The ruling sparked anguished protestations of his innocence from his supporters in the gallery, who were escorted out of the courthouse by sheriff’s deputies.

White’s sister, Aronda Simpson of Merrillville, said her brother – nicknamed “Punkin’” by family – was a kind-natured man who coached youth basketball and worked at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Chicago Heights for decades. Just before he was killed on Nov. 28, he bought and delivered new gym shoes to his teenage nephews, Simpson said.

“His funeral was standing room only,” she said. “He was just such a good-hearted, good man. Good soul.”

Prosecutors said Sunday that a relative of White met Griffin and Small at a party in Chicago Heights and went with them in her car to buy liquor. After they embarked, Small pulled a handgun on her and sexually assaulted her, Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Coelho said. Griffin was armed with an AK-47-style rifle, Coelho said.

The men made her go to a Ford Heights home where they entered by force and attacked the home’s occupant, who fled as Griffin shot and missed him, Coelho said. They robbed the house and left, and their continuing journey around the south suburbs was marked by various sexual attacks on the woman, Coelho said.

They went to White’s home and shot him multiple times, prosecutors said, before raiding his possessions.

Small had bought lighter fluid, and the men eventually forced the woman into the car’s trunk in a wooded area, authorities said. The men doused her and set her on fire, Coelho said, before closing the trunk.

The woman put the fire out, but the two then doused the car and set it on fire, Coelho said. The woman, however, popped the trunk from the inside, fled and called police, he said.

Small, of the 1100 block of 5th Avenue, was convicted of armed robbery in May 2009, two years after he was arrested on the charge, according to court records. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, and state records show he was paroled in January 2011.